Trial of coach accused of child sex crimes nears end

By Diane Turbyfill

Published: Wednesday, August 6, 2014 at 03:44 PM.

Trial continuation: Goins’ trial began a month ago. Attorneys first estimated the process would take two to three weeks. The proceedings have stretched on causing Superior Court Judge Jesse Caldwell to get creative with the calendar.

Caldwell added 30 minutes onto the beginning and ending of the court day this week, but the trial will still continue into next week.

A juror has a conflict on Thursday, and Caldwell has a meeting on Friday.

A former East Gaston High School student said she often saw one of her classmates at the apartment of a former coach who now faces 20 sex-related charges. Testimony concluded Wednesday morning in the ongoing trial of Gary “Scott” Goins, a man accused of sexually assaulting three former East Gaston wrestlers between 1998 and 2004.

Two women rounded out the testimony – Goins’ former landlady and her daughter.

Frequent visitor: Rosa Elswick graduated from East Gaston a decade ago. She testified Wednesday that one of Goins’ accusers regularly visited his apartment next door to her house. Her mother, Hulda Elswick, was Goins’ landlady. She testified that she also saw the young man though she didn’t know him by name.

Rosa Elswick mentioned the visits to her mother several times, but neither reported seeing anything illegal. When the two women heard about the Goins’ trial, they called prosecutors to report what they’d seen in the past.

“I thought it was odd back when I was in high school that (the accuser) would be at coach Goins’ house all the time. I thought it was inappropriate,” Rosa Elswick said.

Accusations of abuse: Three men have testified that Goins molested them while he acted as their coach and mentor at school and on the wrestling team. Two accusers testified that Goins performed sex acts on them on wrestling trips and at their home. One of the accusers said the abuse happened at Goins’ apartment, on wrestling trips and at the school.

Goins has denied all of the accusations against him, and Goins’ wife, Angela Goins, testified that wrestlers never came to the apartment where they lived as a married couple before buying a house. Rosa Elswick said she never saw Angela Goins’ car at the apartment when her classmate was over.

Trial continuation: Goins’ trial began a month ago. Attorneys first estimated the process would take two to three weeks. The proceedings have stretched on causing Superior Court Judge Jesse Caldwell to get creative with the calendar.

Caldwell added 30 minutes onto the beginning and ending of the court day this week, but the trial will still continue into next week.

A juror has a conflict on Thursday, and Caldwell has a meeting on Friday.